Hillside police layoffs averted in last minute deal

Star-Ledger file photoHillside Police Chief Robert Quinlan said it would have been difficult to police the streets if the department had to go through with the layoffs.

HILLSIDE — Police layoffs planned for next month will not go forward after Hillside officials struck an 11th-hour deal for concession with union leadership, both sides confirmed today.

The agreement will allow the township to keep the five officers and two K-9s slated to be cut when the new fiscal year begins on July 1. The department will also be able to rehire four cops given pink slips earlier this year.

“I’m delighted to hear that the township and the union reached an agreement. I think it’s the best thing that’s happened in a long time,” police Chief Robert Quinlan said. “It would have been very, very difficult to protect the township with five fewer officers.”

Previously, members of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 82 — the rank-and-file union — were scheduled to receive a 4.5 percent salary increase after July 1, Mayor Joseph Menza said. They chose instead to take a zero-percent increase, followed by two years of 2-percent increases. There were other small concessions. The new contract runs through June 2014.

“It would have really put a damper on how we police the streets,” Menza said of the averted layoffs.

FOP president Joe Cocuzza said his membership was never unsympathetic to the fiscal situation the township faces — they just wanted a fair deal.

“In the end,” he said, “they compromised a bit and we comprised a bit, and we met in the middle.”
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